User Anonymous

loaf #8

A touch doughy in the lower middle centre area. I'm happy with the crumb, even with the less rise than #7.

This was retarded over night in the ridge, then removed around midday the next day and left to sit at room temperature (17°C-ish) in a glass mixing bowl. Again it took what I thought to be a long time even with a few stretch & folds. I think the glass is better for getting it up to ambient faster though at this point. More experimenting is needed.

I had the same problem I’ve had with all the refrigerated dough thus far, taking a long time for them to come to life. This one I ended up baking purely because I was running out of time and wanted to go to bed. I was surprised to see such an open crumb as I thought it was under proofed going on the poke test during the thawed out stages.

As much as I like the taste of the ‘burnt’ crust, I’d like to know how to bake a loaf without so much colour. Some more reading.

3 comments

I would think about lowering your bake temperature. Heat it right up as you do and then when you put your loaf in reduce the setting to 220C. Then at 10 minute intervals during the bake reduce the setting by 10C so you should end up at about 180C. I think this will go a long way to reducing the brownness.

On your refrigeration exercise, you should develop your dough and shape your loaf first. Dont worry too much about volume increase during development - just about getting the gluten developed. The shaped loaf should rise during its stay in the fridge and you should be able to bake straight from the fridge or leave the loaf on the bench while the oven comes up to temperature.

I would think that glass would be pretty bad for getting dough temperature to ambient given its low conductivity. Metal would be far better.